For the past couple of years, I have been working with the Friends of the Slingerland Family Burial Vault on the physical restoration of the site. An important part of the project is developing educational components. I like to connect local history with wider concepts of U.S. history through the stories of people who lived here. Like that of Skiwias, chief Sachem of the Mohicans and Teunis Slingerland, a settler who arrived in Beverwyck in the 1650s.
Last month, we had planned to have Slingerland Elementary
School students walk over for a visit and to hear these stories. But, no surprise, Covid-19 had other
plans. So, I share with you what I would
have shared with them. So, get your
thinking caps on as we consider Native Peoples and the early Dutch settlement
era in Bethlehem.
Skiwias, Chief Sachem of the Mohicans
The land that was to become the Town of Bethlehem was
home to the Mohicans for hundreds, if not thousands, of years before the
arrival of Europeans. The Mohican lived along the Mahicannituck, now called the
Hudson River. They called themselves the Muh-he-con-neok, the People of the
Waters That are Never Still.
The river and its surrounding countryside provided an
excellent living for the Mohicans, including water full of fish, forests full
of deer, and soil full of nutrients for growing of corn, beans and squash.
While the Mohicans had a village in Bethlehem near where the Vloman Kill flows
into the Hudson, it is not clear if the village was in use when Europeans
arrived in the early 1600s.
Skiwias,
also known by his Dutch nickname of Aepjen, was an influential Mohican sachem
and peacemaker. He was born about 1600, and became the principal sachem around
1645. While several women and many children were part of Skiwias’ family, only
his wife, Kachkawo and one of his sons, Sauwachquanent, are identified by name
in Dutch records.
Skiwias represented the Mohicans during a turbulent
time as the Dutch set up their trading fort at what is now Albany. He helped
negotiate and maintain peaceful relations between the Dutch and other Native
peoples especially those of the southern Hudson River area, including the
Wappingers, the Hackensacks and the Tappans. It was also a time when the
Mohicans were in conflict with the Mohawk with whom they fought over territory
and access to the Dutch traders at Beverwyck (modern day Albany.)
In the 1650s and 60s, Skiwias was a familiar face on
the streets of Beverwyck and the surrounding farms of Rensselaerswyck.
(Bethlehem would not become a town until 1793.) He and his entourage were often
in town for contract ceremonies and regularly testified in court. He and other
Mohicans visited traders, and there is even a record of Skiwias being treated
by local doctor Jacob de Hinse.
Skiwias’ documented Bethlehem connection comes in two
land deeds between Mohicans and representatives of the Van Rensselaers. In the
1600s, Killian Van Rensselaer was busy acquiring land in order to establish the
settlement of Rensselaerswyck. By the
time he was done, the Manor of Rensselaerswyck had grown to 700,000+ acres on
both sides of the Hudson River.
On September 12, 1652 “Aepjen
alias Skiwias, chief of the Mahicans” witnessed a land sale that covered
Nosinaawe’s land from south of the Normans Kill to the house of Cornelis
Cornelisen van Voorhout (near modern day Glenmont) and Na’chonan’s land from
the Vloman Kill north to the high hill where Aernt Jacobs lived (modern day Van
Wies Point.) A July 9,1661 transaction covers the land roughly in between these
two parcels including half of Beaver Island. In his account book, Jeremias Van
Rensselaer noted that he paid Skiwias and his wife Kachkawo six pieces of
cloth, 30 fathoms of wampum, four kettles, six hatchets, six chipaxes, six
pairs of socks and 12 knives for this land which is now in the Town of
Bethlehem.
By about 1700, the Mohicans had been pushed off their
land on the west side of the Hudson River, eventually settling in modern day
Stockbridge, Massachusetts. From there,
they were pushed westward, eventually arriving in Wisconsin where their
reservation is today. The Mohicans
consider the Hudson River valley, including Bethlehem, to be their ancestral
homeland. Today, the tribe owns land in Bethlehem and members regularly visit
the area.
Teunis Slingerland, Trader at Beverwyck
Teunis Slingerland was born in Amsterdam, Holland
about 1630 and arrived in Beverwyck sometime in the 1650s. Teunis, like most
other settlers, engaged in a variety of activities in order to make a
living. In records from the time, he is
identified as a “trader at Beverwyck”. He traded for locally produced items
like beaver furs, lumber, and farm products, and then traded them for items
that had to come from Manhattan, and beyond that from Europe. Items like metal
pots, tools, and woven cloth.
While he owned a house and lot at Beverwyck, Teunis
also had farm lands along the Normans Kill in modern day Bethlehem. His Normans Kill farm bordered on the acres
of Albert Bradt, the Norwegian for whom the creek is named. Teunis married Albert’s daughter Engeltie and
they had nine children together.
Thousands of people today trace their heritage to these early Bethlehem
settlers, Teunis and Engeltie Slingerland, including members of the Friends of
the Slingerland Family Burial Vault.
On May 8, 1685, Teunis, along with his daughter Annejte’s
husband Johannes Appel, entered into a land deal with the Mohawk for almost
10,000 acres north of the Onesquethaw Creek and east of the Helderbergs in
modern day New Scotland and Bethlehem.
Among other items, they paid the Mohawk three casks of rum, three
kettles, and 150 fathoms of white wampum. A Mohican woman, Pawachpanachkam
challenged the sale because the land belonged to her and another Mohican,
Machaneek. The Mohawks denied this, saying it was their land “won by the
sword.” The sale also ran into trouble when Barent Coeymans said he had
purchased the same land from the sachems at Catskill (these are believed to be
Mohicans.)
Eventually, Coeymans gave up his claim, and
Slingerland and Appel agreed to pay the Mohicans for their claim. Slingerland
and Appel then ran into trouble with the Van Rensselaers who had also been
buying up land from the Native peoples and claimed this property as part of
their manor. Eventually, 2000 acres of Slingerlands’ Onesquethaw land was
affirmed as being outside of the Manor.
Connections
Teunis Slingerland and Skiwias would both have been out and about in Beverwyck during the same time frame. With such a small population in Beverwyck, it is not too farfetched to imagine that they might have actually known each other. As Teunis bought and sold furs, Skiwias would have kept an eye on the Mohicans trading with Teunis. As a noted sachem, Skiwias would have kept an eye on those land deals Teunis was so interested in making.
“Etow oh Koam, King of the River Nation” by John Verelst. Etowonkoam was a Mohican sachem of the early 1700s. This portrait was painted during his visit to London in 1710.
The historic marker in front of this Slingerland family
house on Indian Fields Road in the Town of New Scotland reads Slingerland House
1762, Built by Tunis Cornelise Slingerland, Dutch Emigrant 1650, on land
purchased from Indians.”
The Teunis Slingerland House is seen here circa 1933
when it was documented for the Historic American Building Survey. It is believed that parts of the house date
to the late 1600s and early 1700s. It is
on land that Teunis acquired in 1685.
RESOURCES
Visit http://mohican.com/ the website of the
Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians for an excellent history
of the tribe as well as modern news. Historian Shirley Dunn has written several
books about the Mohicans including The River Indians: Mohicans Making
History, The Mohicans (with Aileen Weintraub) and The Mohicans
and Their Land 1609-1730.
The People of Colonial Albany project provides
biographies of many early settlers as well as other documents of those early days.
https://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov//albany/welcome.html
The book Bethlehem Revisited, edited by Floyd
Brewer, is an excellent source for general Bethlehem history including the both
archaeology and early settlement. http://www.bethlehempubliclibrary.org/local-history/bethlehem-revisited-a-bicentennial-story-1793-1993/
For beautiful and historically accurate images of Native peoples and the early settlement of Albany and Bethlehem, check out the paintings of Len Tantillo at http://www.lftantillo.com/
And of course, check out the progress on the Slingerland Family Burial Vault https://www.slingerlandvault.org/
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